How to Turn Bad PR Into An Amazing Opportunity

When faced with negative publicity, you can fight it or turn it to your advantage. And that’s exactly what the Kazakh Tourism Board did in response to the newly released Borat movie sequel that portrays the country unfavorably. As a result, they are garnering tons of favorable media coverage.

Avoid the 7 Deadly Media Relations Sins

Earlier this week, I had the great pleasure of speaking to the Society of Marketing Professionals DC Chapter about how to pitch the media.  Most of the people in the room were primarily focused on marketing and business development.

Media Relations: Finding Your Perfect Pitch

Media relations have never been more challenging. With the speed of communications, the multitude of communications platforms, and the rise of press release distribution services, reporters and editors are simply overwhelmed by the number of pitches and press releases they receive.

Five Qualities of Good Public Relations People

NBC’s Today show devoted a segment this week to Alzheimer’s disease, with a “PR executive” who sincerely advocated for her cause (she noted that her mother had suffered from Alzheimer’s), but struck an odd note when she said that the disease’s “negative stigma” is due to a perception that it’s a disease that “old people get.” 

By |2022-02-03T23:08:04-05:00September 6th, 2013|Categories: Media and Public Relations|Tags: , , , , |

Spokesperson Training 101: Never Lose Your Cool

It's not been a great week for the Anthony Weiner campaign.  Aside from the candidate's own missteps, his communications director and spokesperson, Barbara Morgan, made her own mess. Speaking to a reporter from a political website, Talking Points Memo, Morgan lambasted former intern Olivia Nuzzi and her article, which painted an unflattering picture of the Weiner campaign and its team. Morgan's tirade broke just about every spokesperson training rule and used almost every expletive in the book.

Framing Messages as News: Netflix Adultery

Netflix this week rolled out a brilliant commercial campaign with wow-worthy framing of messages.  It’s a story framed as news so topical and irresistible that Brian Williams dedicated an entire story to it on NBC Nightly News (remarkably airing on a network owned by Netflix’s oh-so-threatened competitor Comcast).

Public Relations: Does a Day (or Week or Month) Make a Difference?

Last Thursday was Earth Day and there were the usual wonderful and less wonderful actions on the part of marketers, nonprofits and corporations to get in on the celebration by aligning and promoting their brand. Nancy Schwartz highlighted a number of great nonprofit efforts. On the commercial side, Leslie Kaufman wrote a piece for the New York Times about Earth Day now being big business.

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